Azerbaijan Snubs the West -- New York Timeshttp://www.joshuakucera.net/2015/01/azerbaijan-snubs-the-west-new-york-times.html
I have a new piece in the New York Times (international edition) on Azerbaijan and its relations with the U.S.: The payoff for Baku of putting up with Washington’s hectoring on democracy and human rights shrinks as the West loses...<p>I have a new piece in the New York Times (international edition) on Azerbaijan and its relations with the U.S.:</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-para-count="439" data-total-count="4051">The payoff for Baku of putting up with Washington’s hectoring on democracy and human rights shrinks as the West loses influence worldwide. It’s a measure of the Azerbaijani government’s disdain of Washington that the raid on RFE/RL was conducted just days after Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with President Ilham Aliyev on the phone.</p>
<p data-para-count="341" data-total-count="4392">In an interview in December, Ali Hasanov, a top presidential adviser, was asked why the government began to so sharply criticize the United States but not Iran or Russia. “Because they don’t criticize us, that’s why,” he said. “Russia, Iran, and China, too, deal with us on the basis of noninterference in our internal affairs.”</p>
<p data-para-count="548" data-total-count="4940" id="story-continues-5">Washington, meanwhile, increasingly judges partner nations according to their opposition to Russia. At her confirmation hearing in September, the new United States ambassador to Uzbekistan — one of the most repressive governments on the planet — praised the country as “an increasingly important partner,” thanks to “its deliberate, reliable resistance to Russian pressure.” Azerbaijan’s mimicry of Russian rhetoric and rapprochement with Moscow is an implicit threat to Washington: Give us what we want, or we’ll go over to Russia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&#0160;Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/azerbaijan-snubs-the-west.html?_r=1" target="_self">here</a>.</p>Joshua Kucera2015-01-12T14:58:10-08:00Russia and Turkey's leaders have similar styles, but an uneasy relationship - PRI's The Worldhttp://www.joshuakucera.net/2014/12/russia-and-turkeys-leaders-have-similar-styles-but-an-uneasy-relationship-pris-the-world.html
I was recently on PRI's The World, talking about Putin's visit to Ankara and Russian-Turkish relations. Listen here.<p>I was recently on PRI&#39;s The World, talking about Putin&#39;s visit to Ankara and Russian-Turkish relations. Listen <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-12-02/russia-and-turkeys-leaders-have-similar-styles-uneasy-relationship" target="_self">here</a>.</p>Joshua Kucera2014-12-31T13:38:10-08:00The Tajiks' Forgotten War - The New York Timeshttp://www.joshuakucera.net/2014/08/the-tajiks-forgotten-war-the-new-york-times.html
I had a piece recently in the New York Times, on the arrest of a PhD student there and the conflict that lay behind it: On June 16, Alexander Sodiqov, a Ph.D student in political science at the University of...<p>I had a piece recently in the New York Times, on the arrest of a PhD student there and the conflict that lay behind it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-para-count="289" data-total-count="289" id="story-continues-1">On June 16, Alexander Sodiqov, a Ph.D student in political science at the University of Toronto,&#0160;<a href="http://politics.utoronto.ca/2014/06/23/free-alexander-sodiqov/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=free-alexander-sodiqov">was arrested</a>&#0160;in his native Tajikistan and reportedly charged with espionage and treason. His crime: investigating a local conflict that the government would rather you not know anything about.</p>
<p data-para-count="535" data-total-count="824">It is easy to keep secrets in the Pamir Mountains — the rugged, sparsely populated eastern region of Tajikistan that borders China and Afghanistan. There is one flight a day from the capital Dushanbe to the region’s main city, Khorog, and it is canceled at the slightest hint of bad weather. The only alternative is a 15-or-so-hour drive over rough mountain roads. Foreigners need a special permit to visit; during times of tension the government stops issuing those, and it cuts off phone and Internet access to the outside world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-para-count="535" data-total-count="824">Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/opinion/the-tajiks-forgotten-war.html?_r=0" target="_self">here</a>.</p>Joshua Kucera2014-08-11T16:50:09-07:00New Reporting From Kazakhstan, Crimea, Abkhaziahttp://www.joshuakucera.net/2014/06/new-reporting-from-kazakhstan-crimea-abkhazia.html
I've been remiss in updating this site, but I've had a number of pieces published recently on Al Jazeera America that may be of interest. Two were from Kazakhstan: one a dispatch from the majority ethnic-Russian city of Petropavlovsk, on...<p>I&#39;ve been remiss in updating this site, but I&#39;ve had a number of pieces published recently on Al Jazeera America that may be of interest.</p>
<p>Two were from Kazakhstan: <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/19/north-kazakhstanisntthenextcrimeaayet.html" target="_self">one</a> a dispatch from the majority ethnic-Russian city of Petropavlovsk, on how they are reacting to the recent events in Ukraine, and <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/20/kazakhstan-s-audaciousnazarbayevuniversity.html" target="_self">another</a> from the ambitious new Nazarbayev University.</p>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://joshuakucera.typepad.com/.a/6a01053643553b970b01a73de09e3f970d-pi" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Src.adapt.960.high.1403382135344" border="0" class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a01053643553b970b01a73de09e3f970d image-full img-responsive" src="http://joshuakucera.typepad.com/.a/6a01053643553b970b01a73de09e3f970d-800wi" title="Src.adapt.960.high.1403382135344" /></a></p>
<p>(Photo: Petropavlovsk&#39;s pedestrian promenade)</p>
<p>I also traveled to Crimea shortly before the referendum to join Russia, and wrote a <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/features/2014/3/dispatch-from-crimea.html" target="_self">dispatch</a> from there on the burst of neo-Soviet patriotism there. And before that I was in <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/features/2014/3/dispatch-from-abkhazia.html" target="_self">Abkhazia</a>, looking at its complex relationship to Russia.</p>Joshua Kucera2014-06-26T02:33:47-07:00